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Short Film Friday: Invaders (Dir.: Jason Kupfer)

Happy day after Thanksgiving, my American friends. Being Canadian, I experienced the wonderful food coma you are all currently undergoing about a month and a half ago, so my heart is with you. In celebration of the season, I bring you a short like few others that truly gets to the heart of the Thanksgiving spirit, Invaders, a dark horror comedy about the two worst home invaders you hope to ever have interrupt your family gathering.

The home invasion trope has become, by this point, played to death, what with films like Funny Games, The Strangers, The Purge, and You’re Next. Each, with the exception of Funny Games, uses the ominous mask as their way of creating an atmospheric removal of the invading antagonists. That unknown quantity behind their motivations – being sadistic for sadism’s sake is key, and yet after so many iterations has become rather trite and tedious. What Invaders does with that trope is fantastic, playing the pre-invasion mask decision making conversation as a way of showing just how stupid such a discussion would be. And then there is the invasion, and while I won’t spoil what happens, lets just say it contains comedic amounts of blood, and not for the reasons you would expect.

Invaders is written and directed by Jason Kupfer, and is his third short film following The Sleuth Incident and Work Farm. His direction is simply marvelous here as he recreates all of those foreboding camera shots associated with the genre and yet skillfully adapts them for comedic purpose. If you are a bit squeamish, this may not be the short for you as it is quite graphic, but if you don’t mind that kind of visceral comedy, you will enjoy one of the most seasonally appropriate short films around.